Currently, when a dentist or other oral care professional prepares to perform a dental procedure, dental disposable supplies that are used to carry out the dental procedure may be individually retrieved, which increases the likelihood of cross contamination. In some procedures, eleven, or even more, dental disposable supplies may be necessary to complete a procedure. Finding, collecting, and placing all of the necessary dental disposable supplies may be a time-consuming process because the disposable supplies may not all be located in the same area in a dental office. Occasionally, one of the disposable supplies needed for the procedure may be forgotten. This may make an already time-consuming process even longer. Moreover, if the dentist or other oral care professional is already carrying out the procedure, retrieving a missing dental disposable item may increase the stress level of both the dentist and the patient. The patient may also become less confident about the dental office or the procedure as the assistant searches for the needed component.
Most importantly, cross-contamination is a serious issue that must be prevented for each procedure. As patients have become more knowledgeable about dental procedures, patients have become more aware of cross-contamination issues. For example, if an assistant has to retrieve a missing disposable item, the chain of infection control may be broken. The assistant may unknowingly and/or unintentionally contaminate the retrieved missing dental disposable item. This contaminated item may then be placed within a dental operating field, such as the inside of a patient's mouth. This may lead to viral or bacterial infection, and/or disease that could have been avoided if all of the necessary dental disposable supplies had been collected in one place and sterilized as an infection control measure before the procedure began. In dentistry, all dental instruments that are placed in a patient's mouth are sterilized, reused, and recycled. An instrument used in the practice of dentistry includes a variety of hand or machine-driven cutting instruments for soft and calcified tissues, forceps, elevators, clamps, reamers, wire pliers, pluggers, carvers, explorers, and other instruments unique to the dental specialties, such as oral surgery, endodontics, orthodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, and restorative dentistry. Although dental disposable supplies are designed to be used once, discarded, and not reused or recycled as an infection control measure, they are placed in a patient's mouth unsterilized. The unsterilized dental supplies are stored in areas that are exposed to dental procedure aerosol contamination from air droplets of contaminated water that may be mixed with, for example, blood, saliva, and diseases created or exposed during dental procedures and/or direct contamination by personnel who may not have completely disinfected surfaces that store the unsterilized items that are eventually placed in a patient's mouth. Infective agents may be transmitted via aerosol droplets to patients and staff. The aerosol bacterial/viral contamination is produced during the use of dental scalers and dental equipment that produces an aerosol spray. Additionally, many patients pass through a dental operatory. Such patients may have been unknowingly exposed to, for example, HIV, Hepatitis, TB, flu viruses, bacterial, and fungal contamination that is in their saliva or blood. This is the reason for vigilant hand washing and use of universal precautions such as masks, eyewear, gloves, and gowns to protect practitioners as well as the next patient that is treated.
Sterile dental packs are an additional universal precaution to protect the patient that is treated by providing an additional protection barrier and is the answer to the dilemma of cross-infection/cross-contamination in the practice of dentistry.
By minimizing risk of or avoiding cross-contamination, patients would have more confidence in the dental procedure and, therefore, be less stressed. Moreover, even one cross-contamination incident may damage a reputation of the dentist or oral care professional. Additionally, an infection due to cross-contamination may lead to a malpractice lawsuit. Therefore, it is in the interests of both patients and dentists or oral care professionals to minimize or eliminate cross-contamination.
Accordingly, there is a need for a convenient and sterilized set of dental disposable supplies for use in dental procedures for the purpose of infection control.